When will you get around to learning guitar?

I often get asked when is the best time to start guitar and my answer is RIGHT NOW! The problem is the ‘right now’ answer does not always feel right wouldn’t you agree? Perhaps you are moving house, about to go traveling, having a baby, have no money or are just not in the right head space. Well let me give you my reply to all of the above and just about any other reason you can think up.

Is there ever a good time?

Think of guitar like a relationship. When you find that special person do you say “Sorry but I am busy at the moment so let me get back to you when I have more time.” The guitar love affair starts now and you need to adjust your life to allow for it. If you keep putting guitar off it will probably never happen. Guitar is something that we do or don’t do. Life is not going to be any less busy tomorrow or next week or next year. Life will always be busy.

Dabbling doesn’t cut it.

I am not a fan of dabbling especially with guitar because you will only be disappointed. It pains me to see guitar students who dabble for years only to end up frustrated. They never do enough practice to make any meaningful progress. In some cases they realise dabbling is the source of their frustration and become committed to daily practice but in most cases their guitar playing dies a slow death.

Step up or step off.

My advice is to put aside 30+ minutes a day to do what is known as ‘deliberate practice‘ and commit for 6 months. After 6 months reassess whether or not you want to continue playing guitar. If at anytime in that 6 months you decided to quit early give yourself one more week. Say to yourself “I have decided to quit guitar but I will make practice for one more week and make my final decision in a week from now.” You will be surprised what a week will do. The reason I say to commit for 6 months is because if you practice everyday for 6 months you will feel real progress. You will find it difficult to quit at this point because you will feel like you are halfway up the mountain so to speak. You will want to keep going and it will feel a lot easier.